DRAFT RELEASE NOTES

The fourth beta release of Haiku continues the trend of more frequent releases in order to provide our users and developers with an up to date and stable platform to work on.

Please keep in mind that this is beta-quality software, which means it is feature complete but still contains known and unknown bugs. While we are mostly confident in its stability, we cannot provide assurances against data loss.

System requirements

This release is available on the x86 32-bit platform, as well as the x86_64 platform. Note that BeOS R5 compatibility is only provided on the 32-bit images, but the 64bit version is recommended if you don't need BeOS compatibility.

MINIMUM (32-bit)

• Processor: Intel Pentium II; AMD Athlon
• Memory: 384MB
• Monitor: 800x600
• Storage: 2GB

RECOMMENDED (64-bit)

• Processor: Intel Core i3; AMD Phenom II
• Memory: 2GB
• Monitor: 1366x768
• Storage: 16GB

SSE2 support is required to use the WebPositive web browser. On machines where this is not available, it is recommended to install the NetSurf browser instead.

Highlights

Installation process

• Fixed an issue with Installer not installing bootman and DriveSetup not setting up the created partition correctly, leading to an unbootable system

Package management

• Added a new warning when downgrading packages through pkgman.
• Added package dates in HaikuDepot to allow users to determine when a package was added or updated.

User interface

• An eject button has been added to Media Player for optical disks.
• Terminal now allows you to configure ANSI colours in settings.
• B_UNDERSCORE_FACE has been implemented to allow applications to display underscores in textviews.

app_server (graphics server)

Web browser

• WebPositive now correctly reports the architecture of the system (previously it reported the system was x86 regardless of the actual architecture).
• In WebPositive Users can now drag the globe icon in the address bar onto the Desktop, creating a shortcut on the Desktop to that URL

APIs

Storage and file systems

BeOS compatibility

POSIX compatibility

Build System

• Haiku now includes a Jamfile engine in the Haiku source tree.
• Rdef file support has also been added to the Jamfile engine.
• Fixed an issue with mimeset under libroot_build being slow and inefficient.

System performance

Internationalization

• Fixed an issue in HaikuDepot with the "Rate Package" window automatically defaulting to Russian.

Hardware compatibility

Sound

Mass storage

Network

USB/Peripherals

• An issue with the Corsair K70 LUX RGB not functioning unless in BIOS mode has been fixed.
• Support for keyboard bitmap reports

Graphics

Known issues and workarounds

There are no known major bugs.